Prussia

Prussia (24,690), the leading State of the German Empire, occupies
about two-thirds of the imperial territory, and contributes three-fifths
of the population; it stretches from Holland and Belgium in the W. to
Russia in the E., has Jutland and the sea on the N., and Lorraine,
Bavaria, Hesse-Darmstadt, Saxony, and Austria on the S.; the SW. portion
is hilly and the soil often poor, but containing valuable mineral
deposits; the N. and E. belongs to the great European plain, devoted to
agriculture and grazing; Hesse-Cassel is extremely fertile, and Nassau
produces excellent wine; in the E. and in Hanover are extensive forests;
Silesia, Westphalia, and Rhenish Prussia contain the chief coal-fields,
and are consequently the chief industrial provinces; half the zinc of the
world is mined in Prussia; lead, iron, copper, antimony, &c., are also
wrought; the Hartz Mountains are noted for their mines; Salt, amber, and
precious stones are found on the Baltic shores; textiles, metal wares,
and beer are the main industries; Berlin and Elberfeld are the two chief
manufacturing centres on the Continent; the great navigable rivers,
Niemen, Vistula, Oder, Elbe, Weser, Rhine, and their tributaries and
canals, excellent railways, and her central European position all favour
Prussia's commerce, while her coast-line, harbours, and growing
mercantile fleet put her in communication with the markets of the world;
seven-eighths of the people are Germans; Slavonic races are represented
by Poles, Wends, Lithuanians, and Czechs, while the Danes appear in
Schleswig-Holstein; the prevailing religion is Protestant; education is
compulsory and good; there are ten universities, and many great libraries
and educational institutions; the Prussian is the largest contingent in
the German army; the king of Prussia is emperor of Germany. The basis of
the Prussian people was laid by German colonists placed amid the pagan
Slavs whom they had conquered by the Teutonic knights of the 13th
century; in 1511 their descendants chose a Hohenzollern prince; a century
later the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg succeeded; despite the Thirty
Years' War Prussia became a European State, and was recognised as a
kingdom in 1703; Frederick the Great (1740-1786) enlarged its bounds and
developed its resources; the successive partitions of Poland added to her
territory; humiliated by the peace of Tilsit 1807, and ruined by the
French occupation, she recovered after Waterloo; William I. and Bismarck
still further increased her territory and prestige; by the Austrian War
of 1866 and the French War of 1870-71 her position as premier State in
the German Confederation was assured.